If you're someone like myself who spends a lot of time in the kitchen preparing food for others a kitchen faucet with a strong stream that reaches all parts of the sink and beyond is extremely helpful.
When that's not possible the next best thing is to have one of the most useful types of kitchen accessories: a faucet side spray.
Side sprays & their benefits
Side sprays act like high-powered spray bottles that never have to be refilled. They have a trigger attached to a hose which is connected to the water pipe under the sink and when idle rest in a hole in the counter top either next to the sink, as part of the sink, or in the faucet mechanism itself.
Generally, the side spray only extends as far as the hose's length but it's enough to allow distribution of water around the kitchen sink's vicinity, nicely.
This makes tasks like cleaning and adding liquid to pots on a nearby oven fairly easy. The spray can also be strong enough to catch the dog or cat when it's nosing around where is shouldn't be!
Disadvantages
With all the advantages side sprays bring to the kitchen there are a few drawbacks. First of all, spraying usually interrupts the flow of water from the main faucet but having had one throughout the years I never found this to be a hindrance because either you're using one or the other.
Second, while the side spray in my old home lasted for literally decades they sometimes need maintenance and/or replacement parts but it's not usually something you need to hire a handyman for.
The easiest way to know if a side spray needs servicing is if the water pressure is low, which means it sprung a leak and the hose may need to be replaced. Alternatively, if the water seems to be dribbling out of the nozzle, this means it's probably being clogged with residue from hard water minerals.
When hard water residue is the issue it can be dissolved by soaking the entire trigger in white vinegar, baking soda, or a combination of the two and lightly scrubbing the minerals off the device.
Thoughts on Installation
Taking all this into consideration, if you don't have a side spray, are thinking about installing one, but are concerned about possibly damaging your kitchen sink area know this: Sinks without side sprays sometimes have a covered up hole already in place and where no hole exists one can always be opened.
The problem with the latter situation is that drilling a hole in whatever material the sink or counter top is made from may ruin the aesthetics, especially if you have custom kitchen cabinets. However, as I mentioned before some faucets come with a side spray in the mechanism so at the very least replacing the faucet with a more side spray-friendly one is probably the best option.
Either way, in both cases the installation isn't difficult but may be a little tricky if you are a novice DIYer.
That's why my advice is this. Even if it takes hiring someone to set one up my experience with faucet side sprays is a no-brainer when it comes to their worth.
After getting used to using one of these tools you'll be wondering how you ever worked in the kitchen without it.
Jakob Barry writes for Networx.com. He covers various home improvement topics including grout cleaning services and interior kitchen design.
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